The church will never return to "normal"

 Ever since the pandemic began I've heard people talking about their hope that everything can soon return back to normal so they can get on with their lives. Church leaders have been hopeful that their churches can soon get back to normal operations again. In some instances pastors were forced by the lay leadership to reopen their churches before the churches were ready in an effort to return to normal. In some cases, that did not end well.

What these individuals fail to realize is that the world will not get "back to normal" in this post-pandemic world. Just as 9/11 forever changed the world in which we live, so has the pandemic. It will likely take years before we realize the full ramifications of all the changes that will occur because of Covid, but we can be certain that things will never return back to what they were before the pandemic. We are forced to find a new normal if we are going to move forward into the future.

What all this means for the church is still uncertain. Certainly, it is going to require us to take a fresh look at how we do ministry in a post-pandemic world. Many churches began offering their worship services through social media outlets during the quarantine, some reluctantly, but then many of them found they had a lot more people tuning in to those services than they had previously had in their in-house services. The next surprise came when church leaders found that people were watching the broadcast services at various times of the week when it was more convenient for them to do so. If we do not want to lose touch with these individuals it will require us to continue broadcasting our services even when we are free to fully reopen our churches.

Of course, this presents the church with more challenges. How do we effectively minister to the needs of our digital congregation? How does this impact small-group ministry? How do we disciple those who connect with us through social media? In what ways can we offer community to those who only connect with us through social media? I'm sure you can identify other challenges in your context.

A different challenge for churches is that we do not become so enamored with our digital ministry that we try to do too many things. We can become so wrapped up in the opportunities presented by our media presence that we lose focus on ministering to people. Many people have become addicted to technology to the point that they struggle to function in the real world. The same danger exists for churches. We can get so caught up in doing ministry online that we forget the human touch in ministry. We must not allow that to happen.

Our world has once again changed forever, and the church must adapt to that change. We are not going to return to business as usual as it existed pre-Covid. The challenges before the church are real, but the good news is that God was not caught unaware of them. As we seek Him for guidance we will find He will guide us through this transition into a new world of exciting ministry opportunities.

When churches work together

 This past Sunday I had the privilege to speaking to a group of churches who have joined forces to operate a home to help addicts get clean. They held a number of outdoor services in a city park during the week, and Sunday evening was the final service. Each evening a resident of the home shared his story of how the ministry of the home was helping him overcome his drug habit.

When churches come together to minister to a community great things can happen. No church, regardless of size, can provide all the ministry needed in any given community, but when churches join forces they can accomplish much. In my message to these churches I encouraged them to try to involve even more churches in their combined work because there is much more to do than just this one ministry.

Too often, we become so focused on seeing our church grow or to see our church develop ministries that we don't see how much more we could do if we joined forces with other churches. We should never see ourselves in competition with other churches. Rather, it's important we see ourselves working with other churches to expand the reach of the Kingdom of God into people's lives.

Over the past two decades I've had the opportunity to lead numerous conferences and workshops for a variety of denominations. While there were theological differences between each of these denominations, what we shared in common was far more important. Each of them held to the fundamentals of the faith that I, as a Baptist, believe in. What differences that did exist were minor compared to what we had in common.

The task that lies before our churches is greater than what any one church can do alone. I often share that a minimum of 50% of every county in the United States is unchurched. In some counties the number is much higher. In the county in which I spoke the census reports a population of about 28,000 which means a minimum of 14,000 can be considered unchurched. Many of these individuals are not saved. No church working alone could reach out to that many people spread out across a county, but all the churches in the county working together could reach out to them. This is what we must do if we truly believe that Jesus Christ came for all people.

I encourage you to begin talking to other churches in your communities to see what you could begin to do together. Find some common ministry emphases that your churches could come together to accomplish.

Churches are reaching people through the side doors

Traditional churches have long sought to reach new people by inviting them to attend the Sunday morning worship service. A few generations ago it was common for church members to go door-to-door through their neighborhoods passing out tracts and inviting people to come to their church. That type of outreach isn't practiced by many churches today, but the emphasis is still trying to encourage people to attend a church service, The declining numbers in many churches today proves that strategy is not effective.

Most growing churches have replaced the attractional model with a more missional one that emphasizes being out in the community and developing relationships with those who live and work there. These relationships soon point to the best ways the churches can serve those in the community and ministries can be birthed through this understanding. These new ministries provide side doors into the church.

A side door ministry can be anything that brings members of the congregation and members of the community together for some interest or need they both have in common. For instance, a group of individuals who share a common interest in quilting might meet once a week to learn more about quilting and to work on their quilts. Another group might want to come together to learn about bass fishing. Perhaps a third group might consist of persons recently divorced who have custody of their children. Still another group might want to get together to learn how to better manage their personal finances. Another group might be grandparents who are now raising their grandchildren. As you can see, the possibilities are endless.

As these groups meet together relationships are developed among those attending. Unchurched people begin to form relationships with members of the church. As these relationships deepen and biblical truths are presented during their meetings it may well be that some of those attending will decide to attend a worship service. Knowing there is someone they know who will be there makes it less threatening to do so.

Since we are still challenged to practice social distancing, forming these groups may not be feasible right now, but that also makes this a perfect time to begin thinking about forming such groups and putting a plan together to do so. The pandemic will not last forever, and churches need to be prepared to reach out with these small groups as soon as it's safe to do so. 

What does a church need to start such a group? First, there must be someone, or several someones, in the church who have a passion for a particular group. Perhaps there is someone in your church who enjoys fishing in bass tournaments and would enjoy passing on some of the things he or she has learned about fishing to others. If there are persons in the community interested in learning fishing techniques you may have the ingredients necessary for a small group. Along with the individual there also needs to be a team of individuals who want to help with the planning. This is too important to leave it to just one person to develop the group and be responsible for all the planning and work that will be required for it to be successful.

Regardless of the size of your church, every church can have at least one such group that will offer a side door to your church. You may be surprised at how fast your church might grow if you open up a side door to go along with your front door.

Providing a faith that will stick with our young people

 I just finished reading an interesting book titled Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in Your Kids by Kara Powell and Chap Clark. While we often complain about how so many of our young people abandon the church and even leave the faith after they move out of their parent's home, few of us do anything to address it. This book offered both parents and the church specific steps they can take to help young people develop a personal faith of their own that will stick after they leave home. 

The church has an important role to play in the faith development of young people. Too many youth groups are built around activities in an effort to get young people to attend, but these activities seldom help develop a deeper faith in those who do attend. Believe it or not, older youth are less interested in the games and activities than they are in other things that can occur in youth group settings. Research discussed in the book found that the number one thing high school seniors wanted in their youth group was the opportunity to discuss things important to their lives. They have questions about life and about faith that they want answered. When the church does not give them a safe place to ask their questions and seek answers to those questions, their young people will go elsewhere with their questions. When they do that they may get very different answers than they would have received from the church.

As important as the church is, the family is more important to the development of faith in their children. Young children carefully watch their parent's actions to learn what's important. What the parents say is not nearly as important as what they do. If the parents claim that faith and church is important, but their children do not see evidence of that in their parent's lives, they will determine that these things are not really important after all. As the children become older, they will become more verbal in their questioning of the disconnect between what the parents say and what they do. One thing is certain, young people will always choose the actions of the parents over their words when deciding what is really important in life.

The authors of the book provides research-based steps on what both churches and parents can do to help young people develop a sticky faith. None of their recommendations are difficult to do. The main challenge in my opinion is doing them consistently, and consistency is a key component to this process. Young people need to see the adults in their lives living out their Christian faith in every situation.

If you work with young people in your church or if you are a parent with small children in the home, you should read this book. When your young people leave for college or begin a life of their own, I think you'll be glad you put into practice some of the recommendations found in this book. 

Church leader's libraries

 As a judicatory minister I would have the opportunity to visit a lot of pastors in their studies or offices. One thing I would always do is check out their libraries. I wanted to see what they were reading, what helps they were using to prepare sermons and their own souls. I recognized that when visiting with a bivocational minister that most of their books were probably at their home where they prepared their sermons. That's where my library was when I was a bivocational pastor. If I had the opportunity I would also check out the church library to see what was being offered to the members to read. I sometimes left the church disappointed in what I found in the libraries.

I felt many of the pastors didn't really have the tools they needed for serious Bible study and sermon preparation. I do have to factor in that those resources might have been on their computers due to the number of excellent Bible study tools that are now available to download. However, if I was reading their libraries right they didn't have the resources that they really needed. Some of what they did have were outdated and probably from their seminary days. (I have to admit that I have some of those books as well, and even though I never use them I hate to get rid of them!) I would often find a few one-volume commentaries, a sprinkling of other Bible study tools, some books on church leadership and some books on personal growth and Christian living.

Church libraries were often even worse. Too many suffer from well-meaning church members bringing their discarded and outdated books to the church library and filling the shelves with books that no one wants to read today. The majority of books I've seen in church libraries are Christian fiction and some books on living the Christian life. Nothing wrong with any of these, but are they really sufficient to help disciple a congregation?

What I didn't find in many pastor and church libraries were books on evangelism, apologetics, church growth and books that addressed the pressing social issues of the day in a serious manner. I found very few books that explored topics such as race relations, sexual and gender issues, poverty, suicide, addictions, and the breakdown of the family. These are important topics today which many excellent Christian writers are addressing, but you would not know that by looking in the libraries of pastors and churches.

Do we not want to explore these topics? Do we think if we ignore them they will go away? Are we afraid to have our thinking on these issues challenged by what we read? With the absence of books on outreach and evangelism it appears these are not important to many of our churches either. Are our people so gifted in knowing how to share and/or defend their faith that we don't need to provide them with apologetics and other tools to help them when they are questioned about why they believe what they say they believe?

If we feed our bodies with nothing but desserts we will pay the price. Those desserts may taste great, but at some point they will cause us problems. The same with what we read. If we read only fluff we may be entertained for a season, but our personal and spiritual growth will be stunted. We need to feed our minds and souls with knowledge and wisdom that will help us to grow deeper in our relationship with God and one another. In some ways what we read will impact us more than almost anything else we can do.

I want to encourage every pastor to take a look at his or her library and see what elements of ministry your library lacks. What areas of ministry do you need to grow in? Identify those areas and begin to gather the material you need to help you achieve that growth.

What does your congregation need to do better? Do they need to learn how to share their faith? Make sure they have good books to help them learn how to do that, and then promote those books as often as you can. Maybe they need help in better understand what they believe and why. Make sure they have access to those kinds of resources as well. Your church library can be a great tool to help you disciple your congregation but only if it is stocked with books that will really make a difference in people's lives.

What do first-time church guests want to see?

 Yesterday we discussed the importance of making first-time guests to your church feel welcome. Today we will explore what those guests are looking for when they come to your church. It's important to remember that a first-time guest will often decide whether to return to this church within the first few minutes of pulling onto the church property. This is even before the pastor has a chance to mess it up! I know some church members will think that it's the pastor's fault if church guests don't return, but that is not usually the case.

Everything, and I mean everything, speaks to the experience your first-time guest will have when they come to your church. The appearance of the building, the landscaping, the ease of finding a parking space, how they are welcomed when they enter the building, the energy of the worship experience, the biblical integrity of the message, and their experience when leaving the service all speaks volumes. But, it's often those earlier experiences before the service that determines whether they will be back.

One of the first things many women look for in a new church is the cleanliness of the facility, including bathrooms, and the safety of their children if they have any. I'm not sure what men look for, but I often joke it's donuts. If the church isn't clean or they feel their children are not safe, the family will not return. Are the weeds kept out of the flower beds and the shrubs neatly trimmed? Does the front doors  or window trims need new coats of paint? Are the bathrooms bright and spotless with plenty of paper and soap or do they have a smell or need cleaning?

Does your church have a policy that is followed to ensure children's safety? Who is allowed to pick up children after the service? Are the children's areas kept secure from unnecessary people? Is everyone required to wear a mask during this Covid pandemic?

Although guests want to be made to feel welcome, they do not want to be singled out. DO NOT ASK YOUR GUESTS TO RISE AND INTRODUCE THEMSELVES! Stop having a "Greet your neighbor" time. Studies have found that the only people who hate this artificial greeting time more than the church members are guests to the church. It does not make them feel welcome!

Does your worship service have energy or do the people act like they would prefer to be somewhere else? Vance Havner once said that many churches start at 11:00 sharp and end at 12:00 dull. No one, especially people looking for a church home, wants to endure a dull worship service.

One last thing today about what church guests are looking for when they come to a new church is they are looking for churches that believe something. Pastors do not have to water down the gospel for fear of offending people. Studies consistently find that people are not turned off by biblical preaching. In fact, that is what the majority are seeking. This is why mainstream churches that try to appease the masses by offering watered-down preaching are losing members and those churches preaching biblically sound sermons are growing. Church guests are looking for something that serve as a solid foundation for their lives and only those churches who actually stand for something and believe something that point the way to that foundation.

Make your church guests feel welcome

 This week I have been writing about what helps churches grow and some of the things that churches do to hinder growth. I've been comparing new churches that seem to grow and existing churches that are often stuck at a plateau they haven't been able to escape for some time. Today I want to focus on church hospitality and its affects the growth of a church.

When I served as an Area Minister for our denomination I was in a different church almost every week. I witnessed some excellent examples of church hospitality, and I saw examples of churches that seemed almost intentional in running off new people. More than once my wife and I were totally ignored by congregations despite it being obvious we had never been there before. In another example, an older man turned to me before a service and asked who the person was I had been talking to. When I told him that he was the pastor the older gentleman said it was his first time to be in that church and he wondered who the pastor was. The pastor never spoke to him but called me the next day to say that he didn't think his church was very hospitable to new people. You can imagine his response when I told him how he had ignored the guest sitting in front of me the day before. This was not such a big church that new people could be missed. 

The first rule of church hospitality is to view your first-time guests as guests, not as visitors. A visitor is someone who shows up unexpectedly. A guest is someone you are expecting. You are expecting new people to attend your church aren't you? A visitor is someone you may not have been prepared to see. A guest is someone you prepared for. You are prepared for guests aren't you? If you're not expecting guests and you haven't prepared for them, why do you think God would send any your way?

If someone decides to attend church for the first time they have dozens of options. Most likely, there are several churches between their home and your location. God can send them to any of these churches. Is He more likely to send them to a church that is expecting them and prepared to receive them or to one who isn't expecting them and isn't prepared for them? One reason many churches do not see more guests is that they are not prepared for them.

Growing churches expect to see first-time guests every Sunday, and they are prepared for them. People have been trained to welcome them and help them become familiar with the church and the building. During their time at the church they are likely to meet several people who will make them feel welcomed. There are abundant signs throughout the church showing people the location of bathrooms, classrooms and other spaces. Often, there is a welcome center than is manned by greeters who can answer their questions and give them informational resources about the church. Contrast this with walking into a church building where no one speaks to you, you're not sure where to sit, where the bathrooms are or where your small children should go, and no one speaks to you when you leave after the service. Which church are you likely to return to?

We'll address church hospitality more tomorrow.

Churches and the problem of committees

 In yesterday's post I addressed why new churches can often grow while many existing churches around them struggle to remain open. I looked at how the structure of the two churches affect making decisions that can lead to growth. Today I want to compare how committees impact church growth and compare that to a church structure that has teams.

Have you ever seem a basketball team hold meetings to discuss plays they might run and after months of discussing these plays bring their thoughts to a gathering of people to vote on it? Teams might discuss how to best run a play, but then they go out and run it. The first scenario I mentioned wasn't a team; it was a committee. That's what committees do. They discuss things, often forever, and then bring their thoughts back to a group of people (congregation) who has not been privy to all the discussions so they can vote on whether or not to proceed. This is a structure doomed to fail. It is also a structure that demonstrates a lack of trust in the church.

Committees discuss things; teams do things. Doing is always more productive than discussing. Our society is changing at incredible speed. No organization can afford to sit around and discuss their options for extended periods of time. That includes churches. We lose valuable time and miss opportunities for ministry because of the committee structure many of our churches depend upon.

Many growing churches have eliminated most of their committees and replaced them with teams. These teams are often short term that end when they have completed their assigned tasks. Some are on-going because of the nature of their work, but they have been given a lot of authority to fulfill that task. Churches should never give teams responsibilities without also giving them the authority to fulfill them.

I mentioned above that the committee structure in many churches is the result of a lack of trust in the church. In low-trust churches everything has to be voted on by the congregation and only after it has come to the congregation through a committee or board. Such churches will seldom grow because visitors to the church can sense the distrust that exists in these churches.

It's not easy for existing churches to change from a committee structure to a team-driven one, but it is possible. I've seen some very traditional churches make the change. Admittedly, this change was often resisted by some within the church, and I'm sure churches have lost members after making this change. I can also say that in the churches I've seen this change occur, it has led to healthier ministry and growth in the church.

Those churches that successfully made the change often did so as a trial. They identified the new format they wanted to adopt and said they would try it for 2-3 years. At the end of the trial if it wasn't working out they would return to their old structure. I haven't seen one yet return to the former ways of doing things.

If your church is overloaded with committees and boards you may want to look at moving to a team structure. This is especially true if these committees and boards are hindering the growth of your church.

Tomorrow I will address the importance of welcoming guests to your church.

Why do new churches grow?

For the past several years many denominations have focused on planting new churches. Some of these new churches were planted in areas where the denomination already had churches. When I was doing judicatory ministry some of the existing churches, most of them struggling to remain open, asked why their denomination didn't spend that money to help them rather than starting a new church. They felt their years of loyalty meant nothing to the denomination. I would explain that denominations were focused on starting new churches because new churches reach new people.

A similar question I was often asked was why a new, often non-denominational, church could come into a community and quickly grow when so many of the existing churches were barely holding on by their fingertips. While there are many reasons for this, one of those reasons is the way these new churches are often structured.

Traditional, existing churches are often so focused on doing things the right way that they fail to do the right things. Many of them must have a monthly business meeting to discuss mundane reports and vote on every detail of church life. By the time committees and boards discuss issues and make a proposal for the church to vote on the opportunities presented by the issue those opportunities have already passed. I know churches that still vote each month on whether to pay their bills or not. The treasurer reads off the monthly bills and asks for a vote to pay them. I hope the church is going to pay its bills! You won't find the new, growing churches structured like that.

These churches may have a quarterly business meeting, and often just one meeting each year to approve the budget and the slate of officers for the coming year. In some of these churches they are limited to only 3-4 items that requires a congregational vote. This may include the calling of a minister, the budget, the new officers and the sale or purchase of property. Everything else is handled by the leadership of the church. That primary leadership may be the pastoral staff or an Elder board or a church council.

Established churches, especially smaller ones, often depend on congregational voting to handle the administrative and maintenance tasks of the church and look to the pastoral staff to provide the ministry tasks. In a church with a solo pastor the task falls upon him or her to grow the church, and if growth does not occur the pastor is often replaced with one who, hopefully, will grow the church before it declines even more.

In new churches the roles are often reversed. The leadership is entrusted to handle the administrative and maintenance tasks while the congregation is challenged to grow the church and to minister to one another. As I've said to many pastor gatherings where I have spoken, no matter how good the pastor may be, he or she can only be in one place at a time doing one task. But, if 50 people in the congregation see themselves as ministers, as Ephesians 4 teaches, now the church has 50 people in 50 places doing 50 things. Which is likely to grow a church faster? In Ephesians 4 the apostle Paul challenges the pastors to equip the saints to do the work of ministry and challenges the church to do that ministry.

These new, growing churches are growing because they are following this biblical model. They trust the pastor to lead the church, to make decisions that will benefit the church and to equip the members to do ministry. Those members are then expected to be involved in ministering to their communities and to one another.

Tomorrow I'll address another difference between existing churches and many newer churches that leads to growth.

Stay in touch during the pandemic

 While many churches have now reopened for onsite worship services, others have not. Even those who have opened have noticed fewer people sitting in the pews. There are still many people fearful of getting out in public. As I have talked with numerous folks I have learned that many of them are ordering their groceries and picking them up outside the store or having family members drop them off on their front porches. Others have told me they have not eaten in a restaurant since this all started. Some visit with families through the windows in their homes or ask family members to maintain distance inside the house. These folks are not going to return to church services until they feel it is absolutely safe to do so. It is imperative that church leaders do whatever it takes to check on them from time to time so they do not feel abandoned by the church.

When churches were first shut down, many began providing their services through social media or their website. The church I am serving offers a live service on Facebook and then downloads the service on their website so people can view it at a more convenient time. As I have called some of our members who do not currently attend the services I find that the majority of them are watching online. Every one of them have told me how meaningful it is to still be able to worship with their congregation even though they can't be there. If you offered your services online I hope you will continue to do so after you open the church up for live worship services. If you did not do anything online, I encourage you to begin doing so. It's not expensive nor is it difficult, and those members of your congregation who are concerned about getting out in public will appreciate the opportunity to share in the worship experience.

Years ago while serving as a judicatory minister I noticed a trend among many younger pastors who were unwilling to do any form of visitation. I first learned about it from some pastor search committees I was assisting in finding a new pastor. A number of them called saying the candidates they were interviewing were telling them that they did not see visitation as part of pastoral ministry.

I admit to being old school, but I don't see how as pastor can effectively lead a church if he or she is not involved in the life of the members of the church, and that involvement includes making visits and maintaining regular contact with the members. This is especially true in the smaller churches. I agree that lay leaders need to be equipped to make these visits as well, and in larger churches they may handle many such visits, but the pastor cannot neglect providing pastoral care to the members either.

This is especially true during times such as we are in now. People are fearful, they are worried, many are lonely as they are reluctant to leave their homes. They need regular contact. They need to know the church continues to be there for them and to care for them. While they need to hear that from many people in the church, they certainly need to hear it from their pastor.

While home and hospital visits may not be an option right now, telephone calls will be welcomed. It takes very little time to make 3-5 calls a day, and they can make a big difference in the life of the ones you called. Stay in touch with the members of your congregation. They will appreciate it.

The importance of Christian higher educatioin

 Everywhere we look in America today we find divisions among the people. While we've always had disagreements about policies and values, these disagreements have never resulted in the violence and behavior we see today at least since the Civil War. One can legitimately ask if we are heading towards another Civil War in this nation. People point to various possible sources of this unrest, and perhaps all of them are at least partially responsible. One source that cannot be overlooked is the higher educational system we find in our nation.

Every fall parents drop their children off at universities and colleges across the country. After tearful farewells the parents drive away leaving their young people to continue their education. For 18 years these parents have taught their children the values and beliefs they hold, and in many cases, the young people adopted these values and beliefs as their own. This is especially true for young people raised in Christian homes. On most campuses they are going to have those values and beliefs challenged, and often, ridiculed by professors and fellow students.

An increasing number of university professors see their role as more than passing along knowledge. They see their new role as agents of cultural change. In many classes these young people will find their former beliefs and values refuted by professors committed to breaking the student's commitments to the teachings of their parents and church.

I was 40 years old and a pastor of a church when I began my college studies. Virtually every class on the liberal college I attended promoted evolution and the beginning of the universe apart from a Creator. A class I took on the Bible and Ethics taught ethics from a very non-Biblical perspective. The professor and I took very different positions on every issue that was addressed in the class. Unfortunately, the younger members of the class seemed to accept whatever the professors said and seldom questioned anything. This was in the early-1990s. If anything, universities have taken an even stronger stand against Christian teaching.

A number of universities have banned Christian groups from operating on their campuses. Christian and conservative speakers are not welcome on many campuses, some sometimes uninvited to speak at various events they had previously been asked to address.

A significant function of a university education is to be exposed to various perspectives on issues and values. This is how young people come to hold their beliefs and values as truly their own. However, the playing field must be level. Certain perspectives cannot be ignored while others are emphasized. Yet, this is what is happening on too many secular campuses. Parents are spending tens of thousands of dollars to these institutions only to have their students come home radicalized and rejecting the values and beliefs of their parents.

There are many excellent Christian colleges and universities that our students can attend. They deserve our support. Our young people will receive an excellent education without having their values and beliefs ridiculed and rejected. They will be taught to think for themselves. The best Christian schools are not indoctrination centers but truly centers of higher education. As you consider where your young people will further their education I encourage you to consider the important of Christian higher education.

The Life Cycle of a church

Churches, like all of us, have a life cycle. We are born, we grow and mature, we reach a plateau stage, we begin to decline until we finally die. It might help to show the life cycle as a bell curve. The maturing and growth of the church is found on the left side of the curve while the decline side is on the right side. We read today that 80 percent of the churches in North America are on a plateau or declining. However, if you notice, the plateau is a rather small area leading me to believe that most of these churches are in decline.

Plateau

                  Birth                                                                                                                    Death

Unlike us, churches do not have to follow this life cycle. Although approximately 100 churches close their doors each week in America, churches do not have to die. At any point a church can begin a new life cycle. A church creates a new life cycle for itself when it begins new ministries designed to reach new people for Christ. Although a new life cycle can begin anywhere in the current life cycle, the best place to begin one is on the left side before a church reaches a plateau. Once a church starts down the decline side, and especially if they are far down that side, they become very risk averse. These churches want to protect what resources they have in an effort to keep their church alive and may not be willing to spend those resources on new ministries.

Unfortunately, it's also not easy to begin one on the left side. On the left side of the life cycle the church is growing. Things are going well. Developing new ministries requires change in what the church is doing, and why would anyone want to change something that is working so well? We've all heard, "If it isn't broke, don't fix it." I have a new slogan: "If it isn't broke, break it because it's going to become obsolete soon anyway." What got you here won't get you where you want to go in the future. The world is changing too rapidly for anyone, including churches, to rest on what has worked in the past. To be successful, individuals have to reinvent themselves and commit to personal growth and lifelong learning. The same is true for churches.

Every church began because someone had a vision for a church in your community. New life cycles for churches begins out of a vision for new ministry. Someone recognizes a ministry need that exists in your community and a vision is formed that will address that need. Perhaps someone else has a vision for another ministry need and a second new life cycle begins. Churches can start numerous new life cycles allowing the church to stay on the left side of the curve, and more importantly, reaching people for the Kingdom of God.

Where is your church on this life cycle? Management guru Max DePree has written that the first responsibility of a leader is to define reality, so be honest with your answer. If your church is on the left side, what can you do to ensure you stay on that side? If you determine that your church is on the decline side, what needs to change? How can your church begin a new life cycle that will bring encouragement to the church and transform the lives of those you serve?

Tear down the walls of your church

 I was blessed to have Dr. Elmer Towns teach two of my doctoral classes. One class was on prayer, and the other addressed doing ministry in the current age. One day in class Dr. Towns talked about the walls churches build. Many churches do not realize they have build walls around their churches. In most cases, they were not created to keep people out, but that is what they have done. As he discussed the walls he went around to each person in the class and asked them to give a number between 1 and 10 of how high the walls were around their churches. Some said their walls may have been about a 3 while others admitted to having walls that would be an 8 or 9 in their churches. Dr. Towns then encouraged us to identify the walls that are keeping people from our churches and to tear them down to build bridges into the communities God has given us to reach. From all the classes I've had in my lifetime that one has stood out as one of the most important in shaping how I view ministry.

We often hear churches promoted as the friendliest church in town. My experience in 14 years of doing judicatory ministry was that many of these churches were only friendly to its members. Many times I would visit a church and my wife and I would be ignored until the members found out who I was. Conversations would be going on all around me, but no one would speak to my wife and me until the pastor introduced us. I have no doubt that people who attended these churches as a first-time guest were treated the same. It was so bad I developed a workshop on church hospitality and offered to lead it to some of the churches I served. When we ignore people who visit our church it is a wall that sends a message to people that they are not welcome.

Another wall is built through some of the language we use in our sermons and Bible studies. Whether we mean to or not our words can tell listeners that some people are not welcome in our church. Some churches seem to major on attacking the world outside the church and persons or ideas with which they disagree. Young people in particular are very sensitive to that kind of language, and this approach to ministry builds a huge wall that keeps young people out of the church.

My wife and I experienced another type of wall when I was in the Navy. We were not Christians or attending church. My ship was in port for an extended time of overhaul when a neighbor invited us to her church. We attended one Sunday with our one-year-old daughter. Almost as soon as we sat down someone offered to take her to the nursery. She was not making a sound but sitting on my lap. We thanked them for their kind offer but said we would keep her with us. On three different occasions early in the service someone came to us and wanted to take her to the nursery. She had never made a sound the entire time, and I was getting very frustrated at a church we had never been in before wanting to separate us from our baby. We never returned to that church nor did we go to any church for years afterwards. Their actions created a huge wall between us and church for a long time.

These are just three of the examples of walls that can exist in a church. There are untold number of other walls found in churches. The fact of the matter is that your church has walls that are keeping people from attending your church. Even worse, some of those walls might be keeping people from a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Every church needs to identify what walls might exist in their church and find ways to remove them. It could take time because chances are these walls are invisible to those attending your church. You might begin by asking first-time guests who never returned to tell you why they didn't come back. Urge them to be honest with you and explain that their honesty will help you better minister to others in the future. You may find these walls to be deeply entrenched in the DNA of your church which will also make it difficult to tear it down. Until the walls are removed your church will be limited in its ability to minister to those in your community.

Challenge of finding volunteers in the smaller church

 About now Nominating Committees in many churches will begin seeking people to fill the various slots their church has decided is important to the life of the church. In many cases the committee will only need to ask some people if they wish to continue doing what they are doing, and the answer is often yes. Then the hard work begins. Now they have to find people for the remaining positions. This is when we begin to hear comments like "Please, accept this position. If you do, you really don't have to do anything," and "This committee hasn't met in years, but we need to have it filled just in case we need them to meet," and other ridiculous statements.

If you look at the list of names who are filling the positions in most smaller churches you will find the same people listed numerous times. I was working with one church in a conflict situation when one member told me she held six different positions in the church. Although it was overwhelming she said it could be worse because two of the committees she was on never met. I asked why they had those positions if they never met. Her only answer was that their constitution called for that committee.

As I've told countless churches and pastors, maybe it's time we rewrote some things in our constitutions and eliminate some positions that may have made sense at one time but aren't really needed today. Much of committee and board work is maintenance work. Some of this is necessary, but much of it isn't. Maintenance work keeps people from doing ministry, and ministry is what leads to transformed lives and growing churches.

The reality is that the largest group of volunteers in many churches has been the Builder Generation, a generation that is quickly becoming smaller and smaller. The Boomer Generation has stepped up some, but the generations following have been less likely to accept long-term positions in the church. Those who are willing to serve are often asked to fill too many slots, and eventually they begin to back off. Eliminating unnecessary positions is the easiest way to solve this challenge.

Another option that some churches are doing is asking people to serve for limited times. Instead of asking someone to teach a class for a year they are asking for a three-month or six-month commitment. If the person chooses to go beyond that they are certainly welcome to do so, but it becomes their choice at the time.

The problem of finding volunteers to fill all the positions that may have been necessary when the church was larger is not one that is going away soon. Churches must find better ways of using the people resources it has in order to do the most effective ministry.

Evangelism today occurs through relationships

Early in my pastorate "Invite a Friend" Sunday became a popular way of bringing new people into the church. I studied the process and encouraged our church to set a date for such an event. We followed the process and were hopeful when the Sunday finally came around. We had zero guests that day. It was a huge disappointment. Even I, the person who encouraged the church to have the event, did not bring a friend. As we later discussed what happened we discovered that we really didn't have that many unchurched friends. Our members had been Christians for so long we didn't have relationships with very many people who didn't attend a church.

This is not an uncommon problem in many traditional churches. Most of these churches are made up of senior saints who have developed most of their friendships with others in the church. Many of us have been Christians for so long and are so engaged in church activities we really don't have relationships with that many people who do not share our faith.

Over the years evangelism strategies has changed a great deal. We no longer spend our evenings knocking on doors and sharing our faith with the ones we find at home. Large crusades are not nearly as successful as they were a few years ago. Local church revivals have mostly gone by the wayside. The most effective evangelism today occurs through the relationships we have with non-Christian people. In order for that to happen Christians must develop relationships with non-Christians. Someone once said that the church must be willing to sit in the smoking section if we want to effectively reach people with the Gospel.

As in so many cases, Jesus is our example. He was not afraid to spend time with sinners and outcasts. He rubbed shoulders with people the religious leaders avoided. Rather than judging the woman at the well or the one caught in adultery He offered them grace and a new life. He didn't try to force them to follow some religious code or a list of rules; He invited them into a relationship with Him that would transform their lives from the inside. The church today is challenged to follow His example.

If we do, we can expect to hear from the religious crowd like Jesus did. People will talk and criticize you when you begin to develop friendships with the "wrong kind of people." Some will begin to question your faith.  Let them talk. While they are talking and criticizing you are doing Kingdom work.

It's important to note that we are not to develop relationships with non-Christian people just to add another notch to our evangelism gun. This isn't about trying to manipulate people to get them to make a profession of faith. It's about entering into a genuine relationship with people in which you care about every aspect of their lives including their spiritual life.

We are not be of the world, but we are to be in the world sharing our faith with all who will allow us to do so. The easiest way to do that is through the relationships we have with other people.

After our "Invite a Friend Sunday" bombed our congregation realized we needed to begin developing relationships with more people. We tried it again the next year and many in the congregation brought friends with them. Some of them became active members of our church. More importantly, they became Christ followers. Who among your friends can you introduce to the person of Jesus Christ?  

Why do young Christians leave the church?

David Kinnaman, in his book You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church . . . and Rethinking Faith, finds that there are six reasons why young Christians drop out of church. I found these to be very thought-provoking.

The first reason is that they find many churches to be overprotective. Young people are often entrepreneurial in their thinking and seek to find new ways of doing things. In contrast, many churches are quite risk-averse. These churches prefer the status quo in their thinking and ministries.

A second reason is young people consider the church to be rather shallow and boring. They believe the church seeks proof texts and familiar slogans in contrast to doing the more difficult work of thinking more deeply about faith and the real meaning of following Christ. They crave the challenge of thinking more deeply about their faith but do not find that challenge in many churches.

Many young people believe the church is antiscience. They have seen the advances science has made in improving the lives of many people, and yet what they hear in some churches makes them think science and faith are incompatible.

Young people seek freedom, and they believe the church is too repressive. This is especially true in the area of sexuality. The church needs to do better in offering healthy perspectives on human sexuality rather than focusing on the "thou shalt nots."

A fifth reason young people have left the church is they find it too exclusive. They have been raised to be open-minded and tolerant. Too often they have seen the church exclude people who do not fit a certain mold. Furthermore, young people struggle to understand why the Bible teaches that Christianity is the only way to God when so many of their non-Christian friends seem so spiritual.

Finally, young people often find the church is not a safe place to express doubts. They seldom, if ever, hear the older members of their churches express doubts about their faith so they believe it is not safe to do so. The church must do a better job of  hearing their doubts and answering their questions.

Kinnaman goes on to address each of these reasons in detail in succeeding chapters. I find it to be an important book for churches to study if they want to keep their young people.

I once worked with a church seeking a new pastor. In my first meeting, as I always did, I asked the committee what they wanted in their next pastor. They said they wanted a pastor who would grow a youth group in the church. To this day I am not sure why I said this because I had never said it before, but I responded, "Why do you think you can grow a youth group when you couldn't keep the young people you had?" I think I wanted to point out to them that if the church did not do some things differently, a new pastor would not be able to grow and sustain a group of young people in the church.

Are any of the above issues found in your church? If so, what needs to change?